Stars and Bones
by Kingofclubs8129
Summary: Harry Dresden never thought he could go back to Chance Harbor after what he did in the year between DuMorne's death and when the council finally caught him. But there isnt much he wouldnt do for his little girl. He may not have known Cassie existed, but he'll be damned if he'll fail her again. AU Spoilers for Secret Circle and through Dead Beat in the Dresden Files.
1. Chapter 1

**Prologue**

I slept. I had never been one for fanciful thinking, for dreaming about what might have been, but in my rest my mind wandered down old roads, long forgotten and buried. I hadn't thought about my years as a teenager in quite some time, but tonight my dreams seemed to be forcing me towards that part of my life. After DuMorne and Elaine had died I had spent a year or two on the run before finally being apprehended by the council. It was a part of my life I'd never been especially proud of. With everything that had happened and all the suspicion I had dabbled in some of the darker aspects of magic, and I'd brought a small coven of fairly powerful teenagers in a town called Chance Harbor down the left hand path along with me.

After being around Ebenezar for a few years and learning what to do and not do with my magic I got a firmer grasp on right and wrong. I'd always really regretted the way things turned out in Chance Harbor before the council got me, they'de dragged me away at a crucial point and Donald Morgan had been plenty willing to inform me of the deaths of some of my friends. I'd failed them when they needed me most, and I'd never been quite willing to go back to face the ones left standing. To see the disappointment on the face of little Charlie, who had always idolized me, or the blind trust in the eyes of Dawn Chamberlain, who had never kept her interest in me a secret and wouldn't hear a word against me. But I think what would've really broken me was seeing the look a betrayal in Amelia's beautiful eyes.

I had been so lost when I got to Chance Harbor, just a stupid kid with lots of power and a whole bag of chips on my shoulder. The others had taken to me immediately, sensing my power and being able to tell that even with their little spell books, DuMorne had taught me more about how magic worked than any of them had known. But at that point I didn't know how easy dark magic was, especially for someone like me. It almost made me wish my father had told me the truth about his family, and what being Balcoin really meant. I had started to tap into the part of my power more fully when the council finally caught me, and though I'd never admit it I'll always be grateful to them for finding me before I'd lost myself in the magic.

I exhaled heavily and stared at the ceiling, the dreams had brought up so many memories. I'd been having them for a few nights and I couldn't help but allow my mind to drift back to my time in Chance Harbor. I had been sort of happy there, before the creeping insanity of my dad's family had set in on me. I think the part of those days I missed most was Amelia, she was beautiful and sweet and bright and charismatic. The shining blonde hair and the assertive personality had given me a bit of comfort, reminding me of Elaine. Before I knew it, Amelia was the person I thought of when I went to sleep at night, I didn't see Elaine standing over me with a blank face, I saw Amelia with a bright sunny smile spilling across her adorable features. I hear DuMorne screaming as he burned alive, I heard Amelia's sweet silvery laugh.

It hurt for me to remember what things had been like before I messed them up. My power had gone to my head in a big way, if it had been my mothers magic that had gone black or if I'd been more obvious id have been executed for being a warlock. It didn't make much sense to me though, why I was having flashback to Chance Harbor after all these years. I climbed out of bed and padded out to the door to my sub-basement, my half-brother Thomas was passed out on the couch and my dog mouse was sprawled haphazardly on the floor. I tiptoed past him and opened the trap door to my basement sub-level. Mouse's eye peeked open as he continued to pretend to snore (hells bells my dog is way too intelligent sometimes) but fell closed again as he saw it was only me. I climbed down the ladder and into my lab and was so distracted I almost jumped out of skin when the eyelights of the carved human skull on my shelf flared up. "It awful late Sahib, I know I don't have a body but even my internal clock is saying its to early for this." I rolled my eyes at Bob's antics I had long since stopped being amused by him.

"I've been having some problems sleeping Bob." I leveled a serious gaze at my skull "I've been having dreams about Chance Harbor." My skull whistled, a feat which never ceased to amaze me due to his distinct lack of lips "Now theres something I never thought I'd here you mention again. Pretty dark time for you Boss, though I have to give you credit for snagging that adorable little biscuit." I glowered at that, I didn't like anyone referring to Amelia like that "Don't talk about her that way Bob. But I keep getting this terrible feeling something is very wrong in Chance Harbor. Do you think you could help me access that sensor web I put up in my old house?"

Bob made an indecisive noise "It wouldn't normally be possible after all these years but your fathers familys magic was scary strong. You were at your most powerful then and you used the family crest to anchor that spell, along with some of your own blood. It might still be there." It was kind of scary to me to hear how strong I'd been when I'd been using my fathers magic. Even with all of Ebenezar's training and the growth my powers have had I couldn't manage to put up a sensor web that'd last as long as that apparently might have. Bob walked me through the process and I went into a deep meditative state.

I reached down into myself to touch my fathers power as lightly as I could. I normally wouldn't dare to try something like this but if my friends were in trouble I owed it to them to help this time. Ebenezars training would be more than enough to keep me from going crazy just from touching my dark magic a bit. I tapped my fathers power, the darkest part of my magic and pulled the absolute slightest bit of it out and pushed it out to resonate with the world. I felt myself smile as my old strength poured back into my, my old surety of purpose, and I think I'd have lost myself after connecting to that old sensor web if I hadn't heard that sweet, soft, hesitant voice. "Daddy?"

**Ok this is a new one. This Idea is something im very interested in pursuing. I love the concept and im hoping itll get some fans. This is just a prologue and I plan to write more and with longer chapters. Id appreciate some review to let me know how its being received so far.**


	2. Chapter 2

I couldn't stop staring at her. She knew didn't know who I was obviously, but I recognized my little girl at first sight. MY little girl. That sounded so odd. I couldn't believe how much she looked like her mother. My little girl was the spitting image of Amelia, so tiny and delicate. I could tell she was a fighter just like her mom though, she had that same never say die glare that my Amy would get whenever she disagreed with me. She would just dig in her heels and nothing anyone said would change her mind, Id forgotten what an absolute pain in the ass she could be.

I sat at the booth in the boathouse and stared sadly at my little girl, who had glanced right past me without knowing who I was, I was staying in a hotel while I was in town since Cassie and her circle were spending all their time in my old house. Just being in the boathouse again brought back so many bittersweet memories of all of my friends and our time together here. I guessed Ethan had inherited it, the little prick. Out of all of the people in the chance harbor circle Ethan had been my least favorite, always running off his pompous little mouth about how he and Amelia were "written in the stars" I had come close to killing very few people that were weaker than me in my life but Ethan was number one on that list.

Cassie sat at the bar smiling and talking to several teenagers around her age, a dark haired girl with dark eyes and the same kind of quiet intensity Dawn had had at that age, a pretty girl with bright cheerful eyes and Sophie Ann's brilliant smile, and a tall striking brunette girl with a happy smile that was dimmed with some of the same sadness sweet little Elizabeth had been touched with. _She's so much taller than her mother, taller for a girl than Charles ever was, where do you think she gets that height from, where does she get that messy brown hair. She's the spitting image of our mother in all of her pictures. _I pushed the voice of my darker half out of my head, my night with Elizabeth had been a mistake, Amelia and I had been fighting and fiery little Liz had been very vocal about what she thought of the direction I was taking the circle. I had always had a thing for tiny girls who could kick my ass.

Across the bar from the girls there was a dark haired boy who strongly resembled Ethan around the eyes, and a tall blonde boy lounged against the bar, it took me a second to figure out who he was but I had still been in chance harbor when Jake Armstrong was born, Sarah had even named the kid's godfather, though god knows I had failed his parents so badly there was no way I'd have tried to raise him. All the memories where overwhelming me, all the smiling and laughing and playing, all the times we'de all joked around with each other. When Patrick had introduced Sophia Ann to us, when Charles had brought Elizabeth into our little group, I had been so happy. They had all looked up to me so much, for all the good it did them.

I smiled at the memories and at the picture of my little girl sitting with her own friends, making her own memories for later in her life. Now that I was there I would make sure all the memories she made from now on would be happy ones. I wasn't going to let those religious nut-job witch hunters touch her, and if they tried, may god have mercy on their soul's because I sure as hell wouldn't. I heard a creak from across the booth and looked over to see an older man with dark brown hair and a serious expression staring back at me. I felt a twinge of guilt looking at little Charlie after what had happened with Elizabeth, but I selfishly shoved it down so I could spend just a moment enjoying having my best friend back.

I grinned across the table at him "Charlie, just the man I was hoping to run into. I see your girl over there with my Cassie, spitting image of her mother." Charlie's serious expression tightened "What are you doing here Harry? I hadn't expected to see you again after you ran out on us. After you left half of us to die in that fire I assumed you'de stay away." My grin faded into a sorrowful expression, I had expected everyone to be upset, I'd left them all with no explanation and they'de lost their friends and loved ones as a result, but it stung that my best friend, my partner in crime, had nothing for me but scorn.

"The council found me right before the fire Charlie, they took me to stand trial for what happened to Justin. I…couldn't face you all after what happened, I only found out about the fire later, but I knew it was my fault that they died, my fault for not being there." The tension holding Charlie up drained away as he slumped in his booth. "Oh, I just don't care anymore Harry, after all this time, I just cant force myself to feel the resentment anymore." I cleared my throat to change the subject, my best friend never could hold a grudge, if I changed the subject I was sure he'd just go with it. I didn't expect his forgiveness anytime soon, but apathy was better than the hatred I had been waiting for.

I smiled wistfully at the kids "Look at them over there, so much like we were. I miss the way life was back then, between the heartaches." He smiled at me a bit "I miss it too. We were all so happy." I snickered "Not all of us." His smile morphed into a wolfish grin "Poor Ethan, we took every opportunity to make him miserable. He knew who was doing it too, it was obvious the pranks were magic, but he didn't want to lose face in front of Amelia." I couldn't help myself, I cracked up "Remember when we cursed his shampoo so it wouldn't wash out? He spent the day splashing water on his head every chance he got trying to get it out but there was always more of it. It kept dripping into his eyes too." Charlie started laughing with me "Please, that was nothing, what about the time we made his clothes invisible to everyone but him?" I was cackling at the top of my lungs now. "I forgot ab-"

"Hi dad, whose your friend?" I froze in my seat and turned to see the tall brunette with Cassie and her friends. She was giving me a welcoming and friendly smile that almost made me forget the fact that for a moment I had thought she was talking to me. Charlie sobered up but his smile didn't completely disappear, it seemed my old friend was willing to focus on the good times for the moment, Charlie always was a champ at compartmentalizing "Oh, Diana, this is my old friend-" I jumped in before he could say my name "Malcolm" I cut him off with a look, I had no doubt Amelia would have mentioned my name to my daughter, and I didn't want her to know I was here. She had been disappointed by me enough for one lifetime. "Malcolm McCoy" I decided to use Ebenezers last name, it was the first thing that came to mind, and the closest thing to another last name I'd ever have.

"Malcolm" Charlie finished, "he was a friend of mine in high school" which was true as far as it went. I hadn't been in high school but he had when we'de been friends. I smiled at them and tipped my head "Nice to meet you all, I recognize you all a bit, you look like your parents. And of course I've met Jake before." He looked a little surprised at that "You've met me?" I smiled wistfully "Your mother and I were pretty close. Sarah was like a baby sister to me, I left town before the fire, but I was devastated when I heard." He seemed almost conflicted about that, though I saw him try to hide it. I recognized the look, the feeling of not wanting others to see your pain because they might exploit the weakness. I'd seen it plenty in the mirror when I was with Justin. I smiled gently at him "Maybe I could tell you some stories sometime."

I widened my smile to include them all "I could tell you all some stories actually, your parents had their own little clique back in the day but they let little old me hang around a time or two." Charlie snorted at that "We didn't let you do anything. It was more like you let us hang around you." I rolled my eyes at him "You make me sound like the Fonz, I wasn't that impressive." Charlie laughed "You are the only six and a half foot man I've ever met who thinks he isn't imposing. It's one of your more endearing quirks, up there with your burger king obsession." I grinned unrepentantly "Hail to the king baby." Diana rolled her eyes "Oh god not another one."

I raised an eyebrow questioningly at her and she gave an embarrassed smile "Sorry it's just I've spent many a night listening to our resident burger queen harp on about the virtues of the king." She nodded over to Cassie, who gave a small blush "I'm not that bad am I?" Every person there besides me, including Charlie, just raised an eyebrow, it was a bit eerie. Cassie's blush darkened "It's not my fault, I have pleasant memories of it. My mom used to take me to Burger King whenever I got a good grade in school. She said my dad used to love to eat there." She looked a little sad talking about Amelia, which made a lot of sense, but she seemed almost as sad when she mentioned me. It made me wonder what Amelia had told her about me.

I gave her a cheerful smile, pretending not to notice the sadness "Well I'm glad to meet another subject of the Burger King." I stood abruptly and cleared my throat "Well I should get going, have to unpack" I nodded over to my friend "Catch you later Charlie-boy" I nodded to Cassie and her friends "Cassie, Diana, Jake good seeing you, and I look forward to being introduced to the rest of you next time we meet. Unfortunately I have some business in town to take care of so I'll have to say goodbye." I stood with a smile and gave them all a nod before strolling out the door. There was a bounce in my step that hadn't been there for years. I may have had a lot to deal with and there may have been a ton to do, but truth be told, it was good to be home.

**Ok heres chapter two. Sorry its not really up to snuff I had to do an infodump this chapter so it's a bit frazzled but now that the scene is mostly set ill have plenty of background to expand on in further chapters. Read and review and let me know what you think.**


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